


Blue Eyes

by MetalBikiniExtraLarge



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 00:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10819968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetalBikiniExtraLarge/pseuds/MetalBikiniExtraLarge
Summary: After the death of Emperor Palpatine, and the accession of Emperor Vader to the throne, Leia Organa receives an invitation to the recalled Senate, and the wording reminds her of a young man she met briefly on the Death Star some years before.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an oddity I've had lurking on my hard drive for years. I didn't think it was quite ready when I last posted anything, but I think it's as ready as it's ever going to be. It's the result of thinking 'What if?' about Luke and Vader, and how things might have turned out if they had met earlier. That original meeting doesn't actually feature - I expected to put in a flashback at some point in the story, but in the end I never did and don't think it needs to be there for the story to make sense.

The death and state funeral of Emperor Palpatine and the accession of Emperor Vader were hardly surprising events, but the official Imperial ceasefire that followed, and the announcement of an amnesty to cover all representatives and their staff for a recall of the Senate were startling, and gave rise to lengthy debate amongst the leaders of the Rebel Alliance. The arrival of personalised messages to Senator Mon Mothma and to Princess Leia Organa as the heir of the late Senator Bail Organa caused even greater confusion.

Leia stared at the wording. Both messages were displayed side by side on the large screen in the briefing room of their current headquarters. A polite message, addressed to each individually, quite different from the standard business-like wording of the original notice, assuring them of the sincerity of the new Emperor's intention to recall the Senate and restart the democratic process. But Leia's had an extra sentence "It is hoped that at some stage the Senate may be modified to include a full complement of 3,192 representatives." Nothing remarkable, any other reader would have thought, but Leia stared and frowned as the debate went on around her as to whether or not they should trust the message. She could recall only one occasion when she had mentioned that number to another person, and the circumstances had been... difficult.

Finally she decided - she needed to explain the difference in wording, and see whether the others reached the same conclusion. With a quiet gesture she silenced the current, fruitless, debate.

"The difference in wording - it isn't just a random comment to personalise the message. It is... an offer, a promise. But I don't know whether we can believe it."

She had their full attention now. "The Senate has never had three thousand one hundred and ninety-two representatives. It is the number who would have existed if certain systems had not been outlawed from the Senate, or their representation merged with that of others to stifle their unpopular political views, or restricted because their populations were largely non-human." She looked around the puzzled faces round the table and took a deep breath. "So far as I am aware, that figure only exists because I was off school for a month and read the history of the Senate from cover to cover, making notes and tallying up the numbers. I can only recall one occasion when I mentioned it to another person. And that was on the Death Star."

The faces around the table were sympathetic now, and more than a little cautious. Her experiences on the Death Star, at the hands of Darth Vader, were not something she spoke of willingly. Mon Mothma was first to respond - "You told Darth Vader this number?"

"No. I told it to a young man, an assistant of some kind, shortly before... before the loss of Alderaan. He must have repeated the conversation to Darth Vader. But if he did that, with the whole context, then the use of that number has a very specific meaning. True democracy."

She was unsurprised at their disbelieving expressions. It was an unlikely thing for Vader to promise, even to bait a trap.

"Perhaps if you gave us a little more of the background?" Mothma's voice was gentle as always.

Leia hesitated for a moment, but she had already made her decision, to tell them of the odd encounter. She had barely mentioned it on her return to the Rebellion, saved by a smuggler motivated by hopes of a reward and an elderly Jedi knight who had died to let them get away.

"After the ship was boarded I was taken to a cell on the Death Star and... questioned... by Darth Vader. When I would not give up the location of the rebel base, I was brought up to the bridge, and you know what happened there. But I wasn't taken directly from the cell to the bridge, I was taken first to a conference room of some sort. The guards left me there with a young man. He was very polite, told the guards they could leave me with him and we would go up to the bridge together. And then we talked, about politics and democracy. He seemed no older than me, though I guess he must have been older than he looked to be working there. He was very naive about how the Empire works, brainwashed by the education system no doubt. He talked about the Senate as if it made a system democratic simply to have any form of representation, and I got quite heated explaining what democracy really was. And that was when I mentioned the number, saying that the Galaxy would never have true democracy until it was run by a Senate of that number of representatives and not by an Emperor."

The others around the table exchanged glances. If that statement had been repeated to Darth Vader, and he was now quoting it in an offer about how the future of the Senate might be shaped, then it was significant indeed.

"Do you recall anything else about this young man? Did you notice his rank for instance?"

Leia shook her head "He had none. No rank insignia of any kind."

"How was he dressed then? Was he a courtier?"

Another shake of the head "Very plain clothes, black, military. Good fabric, like the officers uniforms. Military jacket and trousers, calf length boots. All black. But nothing on the shoulders or cuffs to show his rank." She frowned. "I assumed he was some kind of assistant, waiting to see Vader to make a report or be given orders. We were taken up together. But I didn't hear any name or rank, or anything about who he was."

"What happened when you reached the bridge? Did the young man say anything then?"

"No, we were taken to the view screen, where Tarkin and Vader were standing. The young man stood a little behind me. Then... he must have moved... when Tarkin gave the order..." She thought back, picturing the scene. "When Tarkin gave the order to fire, or just after it, I was standing ahead and to the right of Vader, and the young man was almost beside me. Vader grabbed me, I was shouting. But he must have grabbed the young man at the same time with his other arm, because I realised he was slumped beside me, I think he must have nearly fainted when..." she trailed off.

"Perhaps not military then? A civilian assistant?"

"Maybe. He seemed too young to be anything." She smiled ruefully. "My first impression was that he was my own age, and I was only fifteen then. But the Empire don't allow child labour on their flagship, I'm sure"

Admiral Ackbar leaned forward, suddenly very focussed. "Can you describe him any further? Physically I mean. Height, build, colouring?"

"Quite short, not that much taller than myself. And a slim build. I think that's probably why he seemed young, you know how men's shoulders broaden out? Well his were still quite narrow. Blond, very blond, wavy hair. And the brightest blue eyes."

Ackbar turned away to the computer interface, muttering to himself and typing something in, then quickly scanning the screen before turning his attention back to the room.

"This report was made a few months before the incident Leia has described. It was discounted as simply the imaginings of the person who related it to our agent, since the suggestions it contains were in no way consistent with any other reports before or since. However, there are certain aspects in common with what Leia has told us."

He brought up the document on the large screen for them all to read for themselves. There were muted gasps and other surprised noises as each read through it, and a number of blushes by the time they were all done.

"As I say, we have never heard of any similar allegations regarding Darth Vader's personal habits, and the report was simply dismissed. It was made by an agent who travelled frequently between ourselves and the Imperial fleet, and picked up pieces of gossip. They were occasionally useful to corroborate or contradict more reliable sources. I had not thought of it since, but Leia's description of this young man, in close proximity to Vader, lends it some credibility."

There were disbelieving comments at that, and Ackbar clarified. "Not the main allegations of course, but the suggestion that a 'pretty little boy, all blond curls and big blue eyes' had been travelling with Darth Vader may well be a reference to this unnamed assistant. Would 'pretty' be an accurate description, Leia?"

She nodded silently, he had indeed been a good-looking young man. But the idea that he might have been quite so close to Vader was disturbing.

Ackbar continued "It seems likely that this young man arrived with Vader and, in the absence of any clear indication of his role, rumours started."

General Dodonna nodded, "It's easy for rumours to start in any ship, with too many people waiting around when they are off duty. The comment about him sharing Vader's quarters is likely the kind of thing that sounds more serious than it is. Do we know what ship they were on?"

"The Executor"

He scoffed. "Well then, 'Lord Vader’s Quarters' would refer to a wing of fifteen or twenty rooms set aside for Vader's use. This young man could very easily have been quartered in one of them, and therefore 'sharing' his quarters in a sense quite different from what the report alleges."

There was a general agreement that the young man should be considered as an entirely innocent civilian assistant, and they returned to the main topic.

"So, this young man is the only person to whom you can recall mentioning this number. We must therefore assume that he reported the details of your conversation afterwards and that, for some reason, the figure stuck in Vader's memory. Or else perhaps that he made some note of it. In either case, he has decided to quote it now, knowing that you will understand it to be an offer for greater democracy. I think we can discount any idea that he would also plan to disband the office of Emperor. But democracy of some nature is the obvious intention of the message. As you say, we need to consider to what extent it is genuine. Why would he make such a suggestion now, when his power seems secure?"

"Why recall the Senate at all? It seems equally unnecessary."

"Perhaps this young assistant put the wording into the message himself for some reason?"

Leia shook her head rather sadly. "Given that he was on the Death Star only hours before it was destroyed, and given that those few survivors we are aware of were in fighter craft at the time of the attack, I think we must conclude that he is long dead. A pilot would have had insignia on his uniform." 

It somehow seemed all the more tragic that such a young man had met his death during their destruction of the evil weapons station, though doubtless there had been many other pleasant and naive young men amongst the casualties.

"He must have reported to Vader almost at once, before the attack. I'm surprised that Vader would have remembered such a minor fact, but his attention to detail is well known." She paused to consider. "I think I have little choice but to take the risk and attend the Senate, and the reception before it, in the hope that he intends at least some democratic representation. If I do not go, if we show no intention of taking part, then military action is sure to restart very soon. If it is a trap, then at least I will be the only one caught in it. You must change locations and codes as soon as I leave, so that I have no valuable information."

"Leia you don't have to do this, I will attend instead" Mon Mothma said calmly. "Only one of us needs to go to find out his intentions."

Leia smiled at her, she could have guessed the older woman would offer. "No Mon, you need to continue working on diplomatic ties with neutral systems, in case this is all a trick. My role is less important at present. I'm the one who has to go, for good or ill."


	2. Chapter 2

And so Leia found herself on the landing pad of a tall imposing building in the centre of Coruscant, close to the Senate building and the Imperial Palace complex, dressed in a flowing white dress and with her hair carefully arranged, wishing that she could have brought a blaster.

Taking a deep breath, she composed herself to look suitably calm and regal, and entered the building, looking around at a mixture of senators, court officials, and prominent citizens, getting a feel for the mood of the room. Then her gaze stopped, and her mouth opened slightly in surprise, as her eyes met a pair of very bright blue ones to the side of the room. The figure smiled warmly back and walked across to her, the movement seemingly unhurried and yet he was almost at once standing beside her, saying something she didn't hear, gesturing to a passing waiter, handing her a glass of champagne which she sipped automatically.

She gathered her focus, blushing slightly at her lapse, as he continued to chat lightly without seeming to expect any reply. His inconsequential chatter paused when she had regained herself a little, and he said more softly "I'm sorry, I hadn't realised how much my presence would startle you. Are you all right now?"

She nodded. "It was a little disconcerting. I had thought..."

His expression sobered. "I was transferred onto a ship just after our meeting, so I was far away when it happened." A flicker of pain passed over his face, but he calmed again almost at once. "I... never had a chance to offer you my condolences. It was a terrible loss."

Leia gave a small nod but said nothing. It was difficult to hear sympathy from an Imperial, even if he had no personal responsibility for the actions that had led to the destruction of her entire home planet.

They chatted on other, safer, subjects for a time, but her eyes flicked frequently around the room, seeking out the one person she had expected to see, though with no enthusiasm for his company.

Luke lowered his voice again "He had hoped to speak with you as soon as you arrived, but I'm afraid there are a number of people here who were determined to press for an immediate meeting." He raised his voice to a normal level again "Perhaps I can show you the view from the terrace, Coruscant looks beautiful from up here."

She allowed him to lead her through the room and out past red-clad Imperial guards onto a long terrace to one side of the building. The view was impressive, but she found it impossible to focus on that. The young man's unexpected presence had brought back her memories of the Death Star in sharp detail and they were at the forefront of her mind no matter how she tried to keep her attention on the current situation. They sat down on a bench, ignoring the view.

"I'm sorry, I should have thought this through better. The wording seemed the obvious way to catch your attention, and I'm the only one other than Vader who could reassure you when you arrived. But I should have realised that both would trigger your memories and make it difficult for you."

"I'm usually much stronger than this. I hope you don't think I'm just some silly weak girl who is overcome by her emotions at every turn."

He laughed aloud at that. "Since I'm the one who collapsed and was taken off the weapons platform on a medical transport, I'm hardly in a position to be insulting... you lost your family and your home and everything you grew up with in that one moment. I only lost... well, a certain amount of naivety, and that was hard enough to bear. You are a very strong person, Princess Organa, else you wouldn't be here in the hope that you can fix the galaxy, while fearing that all you have come to is pain and death."

She looked up at him sharply. He clearly knew a lot more about the situation than a mere assistant might be expected to be privy to.

"Please do not be concerned. I assure you that neither Vader nor I mean you any harm. He very much wants you to take part in the democratic process, and to give certain interests a voice there, and harming or threatening you would not further that aim in the slightest."

She felt almost instinctively that she could trust him, that his assurances were genuine, something about his voice and manner was so soothing... She shook the feeling away, no matter how pleasant he seemed she knew nothing about him, and she was not in the habit of giving her trust to a stranger, particularly an Imperial stranger.

"Despite the pretty invitation, and Emperor Vader's personal assurances, I am at a loss to how I am supposed to represent anyone's interests in the Senate, since my home planet was destroyed and then the whole population vilified as traitors." Her voice was caustic. If Vader expected her to dance like a puppet then he was sadly mistaken. "Unless the rules have been changed without notice, which I suppose may well have happened, I have no constituency and therefore no place in the Senate, even if the old rule of succession from my father was taken to apply."

The young man made an appeasing gesture. "I understand that, and that is why Lord Vader particularly wanted a chance to talk to you this evening. He has certain... proposals... about how the situation can be resolved. That is a far higher priority than what he's been dragged into by the group of Outer Rim senators who collared him and seem keen to talk him into submission at present. However, since he wants to make it clear that he takes the Senate seriously, he can't be as direct with them as he might wish."

"'Direct' as in strangling them all and dropping the bodies off this terrace perhaps?"

He smiled, "Believe it or not he hasn't strangled anyone for a long while." His face sobered. "Given your history, I am not going to try to convince you that he has changed. I understand that it will take time for you to even consider that possibility. I will only assure you that his intention to increase democracy is genuine, as is his wish to end the conflict with the Rebel Alliance. But that cannot happen overnight. The ceasefire is holding, largely, but we need to get people around the table and look at how their legitimate aims can be considered if we are to move forward." He looked at her disbelieving expression. "I know what you think of him, but truly his aim has always been peace. He just... made some bad choices about how to try to achieve that. If nothing else, can you believe that he is prepared to try something new?"

"I find it very hard to believe even that, though I don't doubt your sincerity. But... I'm not sure that I can even bear to speak to him at present. I came here with that intention, of course." She thought for a moment. "You seem to know a great deal about his plans. Why don't you explain them to me, and then I will decide whether to give him a hearing."

He frowned, and sat gazing into the distance for a few minutes, then seemed to reach a conclusion. "All right. But you'll have to forgive me if I don't put things in a very diplomatic way. I know the outline, but I might not explain things as he would have done."

"So much the better. I'd prefer it if you were straightforward and don't try to sugar-coat anything for me."


	3. Chapter 3

The young man took a deep breath. "All right. The problem is that, as you say, you don't really have a constituency, at least not one that can be publicly admitted. The Rebel Alliance also has a problem in that the public, within the Empire at least, view them as a military and terrorist organisation rather than a political entity."

Leia raised her eyebrows at that, and he rapidly went on "I'm talking about public perception, your own views may be more valid but they are not what we have to deal with here", and she nodded.

"The difficulties with your personal position are due to the declaration that the whole population of Alderaan were traitors to the Empire. The difficulty for the Rebels is focussed mainly on the loss of millions on the Death Star weapons platform. Yes, it was a legitimate military target, which Alderaan was not, but they were still men with friends and families, and that event above all made the ordinary population aware of the possibility of loss at the hands of the Rebels."

She nodded again. Those would have to be overcome if anything like peace talks were ever to be considered. 

The young man seemed to hesitate, then steeled himself to continue. Clearly he was getting to the difficult part. "If the public perception of those two events were to be altered, then our options would be increased. Say, for the sake of argument, that a secret report was to come to light. One that showed that the destruction of Alderaan had in fact been caused by a terrible flaw in the weapons systems of the Death Star, a flaw that led only a few hours later to a catastrophic failure of the platform's systems with the loss of all on board. And say this report also detailed the official cover-up which was put in place to conceal those facts, with the public declaration that the destruction of Alderaan had in fact been deliberate and justified, and the Death Star's destruction being blamed on the Rebels." He looked up at her cautiously. "Can you see that the political situation, both for yourself, and for the Rebel Alliance, could change drastically almost overnight?"

Her brain felt hardly able to keep up with the implications of such a report. It would be a work of fiction of course, they both knew that neither event had been an accident. But there were few alive who knew that for certain, most only had reports from others to go on, and the 'discovery' that the propaganda at the time had been a cover-up would not come as that much of a surprise within the Empire. There was a certain tacit acceptance that official information was biased, and it would not take much to explain why such terrible faults in military equipment had been hushed up.

"So... the Empire gets off the hook for Alderaan, the Rebel Alliance get off the hook for the Death Star, and the memory of Alderaan gets absolved. And does Palpatine take the blame for all of this? Now that he can't answer back?"

"Partly Palpatine, partly Vader, partly unnamed 'advisors'. It would look unlikely if Vader hadn't had some involvement. But there are plenty of earlier documents quoting his concerns about the development of the weapons platform anyway, so his reluctant agreement not to publicise military failings will be clear from even before the start of the project. It will not surprise the military leadership. It will not particularly surprise the general population, or affect their view of him."

Leia looked at him with interest. He appeared to have a measured view of his employer's image, and not be concerned about it.

He smiled. "None of this will depict him as a plaster saint, but it won't make him look bad either. And it will explain his sudden interest in democracy and a careful reduction in military activity. Particularly if..." He trailed off, clearly reaching another tricky part of the conversation.

"If...?" she prompted.

"If you would agree to take the role of 'Senator for Alderaan', with a constituency of all those adversely affected by military conflict. And make some kind of public statement, along the lines of how this is the kind of terrible waste of life that comes from seeking military solutions to political problems."

She nodded thoughtfully. "The 'leaked' report gives him a perfect excuse. I get public sympathy and political recognition. Any issues I raise or support will get greater attention. What does he get out of this? Does he expect to have some kind of control over what I say and do as a result?"

"No. You will speak for or against Senate motions as you see fit, and raise issues you think are important. I know you think he doesn't value democracy for its own sake, and I will admit he thinks it has serious limitations, but it truly is in his interests for the democratic process to be in place and operating properly. Many of your fellow senators were chosen more for their ability to nod on command than for genuine political ability. Others have the capacity but are overcautious. The sight of you arguing and debating properly will kick-start this Senate into a genuine political force."

"I'm seeing any number of reasons why this is good for me, but you're not convincing me why Vader would go to this effort. Surely a puppet Senate is more to his tastes? Why should I believe I am not just being set up as a troublemaker?"

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You really are... persistent. I can see why you are the right choice for this." He smiled to take the sting out of his words. "It suited Palpatine to have a military rebellion, to focus attention and give an excuse for retaliation. The court, the politicians, the military, the populus, they all expect it. They are accustomed to living in a state of strife. He could have crushed the Rebel Alliance any time he chose, but some other body would have taken its place. It worked better for him that there was one name, one identity, one enemy, so he let it continue. I'm sorry if that is news to you, but you must have felt that you got lucky rather too often." He paused, but she didn't argue. She had certainly felt that way often enough, as though Palpatine and Vader were merely toying with them.

"Vader wants to stop the armed rebellion. But he can't simply give in to their demands, or he will appear weak and encourage others to use the same methods to achieve their aims. What he can do is to replace military fights with debates in the Senate, and public discussions, and peace negotiations. That last will have to wait. For now, we have to get people used to political fights instead of the other kind. Media and ordinary conversation will start to focus on what is happening in these debates, people will have different opinions and start to feel able to voice them without fear of what will happen. Once everyone has got used to that idea, there will be no political need for an armed rebellion to give an external focus. Then... we can look at peace negotiations to draw a final line under the military action. By that point, people will have had practice at discussing the issues and we can hopefully find some genuine solutions."

"Won't the military get upset about not having a war?"

"Not if they have something else to keep them busy. There are large numbers of refugees who need to be transported and housed, which will keep the logistics people occupied, and they can be involved in rebuilding schemes for both military and civilian infrastructure. Add to that the problems of piracy and smuggling which have largely been ignored lately, and by the time we get to peace negotiations the military will have diversified into other areas."

She just looked at him for a long time. "Just one more question. Is this Vader's plan or yours?"

He looked startled, then blushed. "I guess it's obvious that I'm not just passing on what he has told me of his plans. We have discussed it repeatedly, not specifically about you and Alderaan, but how the galaxy can move forwards and how to remove the obstacles to political progress."

"The two of you are... close then? You... discuss these kinds of issues long into the night?"

His smile didn't either confirm or deny the implications he must have recognised in the question, but he merely said "I have known Emperor Vader for a number of years, and we have debated politics frequently over that time. My understanding of the issues has developed, as has his. The need for genuine political change, and the ways in which we might achieve it, have been a recurring theme. We both want peace, above all else."

"Presumably achieving change had certain pre-requisites, such as the death of Emperor Palpatine. I can't help wondering..." She allowed the question to hang in the air, not really expecting an answer, but was surprised when her companion smiled warmly and said "Vader did not kill Palpatine, despite the rumours"

She blushed, it had been rude of her to ask, but he seemed unembarrassed by the topic. Then she caught a quick flicker of his eyes towards the doorway and turned her gaze that way in time to see Emperor Vader himself stride through the opening. Despite all the assurances she had been given about his aims, her memories filled her with terror at the sight of the huge black-armoured form between her and the only exit. He nodded slightly at her, and moved along the terrace and out of the direct line. She frowned, it was always worrying to see how easily he could read her thoughts, giving a sense of vulnerability she was not accustomed to. But, despite his appearance being as intimidating as ever, his presence did not give her the sense of hopeless despair that it had done at their previous meetings. Perhaps the assurances of his... assistant... had convinced her more than she had thought.

"Princess Organa" the vocaliser was as deep and expressionless as ever, that much was unchanged at least "My apologies for the delay. Certain of your fellow senators were most insistent on discussing their concerns in person. You have had a chance to hear my proposals. Have you any queries, or points on which you require clarification?"

She considered for a moment. "Thank you, no, the situation has been explained very succinctly. You will understand that the ideas are rather startling and I will need to give them due consideration."

"Of course. I would have been surprised and disappointed if you felt otherwise, given the seriousness of the implications. However, time is of the essence. Could I press you to make contact with a reply by tomorrow evening? Luke can provide you with a communicator which will go direct to him and cannot be intercepted"

The young man took a small device from his pocket and handed it to her. She smiled in response. Finally she had a name for him, 'Luke'. It seemed to suit him.

"I will let you know one way or the other by tomorrow afternoon. Presumably we would then need to finalise details if I decide to go ahead."

"Yes. There will be a great deal to organise if we are to make this work. May I suggest that you return to the reception and socialise a little before you leave to... consider. It would be better if we are not known to have spoken privately."

Leia nodded. There was no reason for her to have discussed anything privately with Vader, at least not until the leaked report became public. Her discussions with his assistant had hopefully not been too noticeable.

She left the terrace and mingled with the other guests for an hour or so before returning to her apartment. Once there, she changed into a plainer outfit and tried to think through the evening's unprecedented events, before finally resolving that she simply had to contact Dodonna and Mothma on their prearranged frequency to discuss the matter with them. She doubted that they could come to any other conclusion than the one she had already reached while changing her clothes - even if this was a trap, the bait was too good to ignore.


	4. Chapter 4

Leia left the call to Luke until a little after lunch. It would not do to appear too eager to accept, and besides she has slept very late after the lengthy discussions with the other rebel leaders. She had gone over the plan, and the rest of the conversation, repeatedly, in case any tiny relevant detail had been missed, and they had debated every aspect of it, and the possible motivations of both Vader and Luke, until they could think of nothing new to say and were merely repeating previous comments. Finally she had called a halt - the possibility of peace was not something she could turn down. This plan at least had the advantage of allowing the Rebel Alliance to continue working without her if it indeed turned out to be a trap of some kind. Their communications would continue to be put through carefully coded channels which would minimise the risk of detection.

While they had debated, the name 'Luke' had been put through their database to see if it added any further information. There were a very few entries about him, showing that a young man of that name had been active in court circles from time to time in the past few years, both before and after the Death Star incident. But very little of the reports was factual, just the basic information that he had been at court, or at a certain event, on various dates. Beyond that, there were only rumours, most of which contradicted each other. He was an assistant to Vader, or to Palpatine, or a court functionary. He was a Sith apprentice, or a military protégé. He was the natural son of almost any blond man of prominence in the court or the military, or of Vader or even Palpatine himself. In short, nothing of any substance was known about him.

Leia had chosen not to mention any implications about how close Luke was to Vader. He had certainly not denied it when he must have known what she was insinuating, which most men would have done. But the trust Vader seemed to place in him was far greater than what she would have expected from that situation. Vader hardly seemed the kind of man to mix business with pleasure and risk important secrets on the basis of a mere physical relationship.

She shook herself. It really didn't matter what Luke was to Vader, beyond the fact that he was a full part of this particular plan and her main point of contact. She did not, and would not, trust him beyond the current plan, and only then so far as she could see that their aims were compatible. He was an ally, and an untested one at that, not a friend.

She put through the call.

 

The next morning, she received a peremptory and very officially worded request that she attend the Imperial Palace without delay, which she obeyed as promptly as any other loyal (and frankly terrified) subject would do. She was immediately ushered through to the Emperor's private meeting room rather than the throne room, and was left alone with him. In theory, he was now breaking the news of the report whose leak to the press he had just learned of, and ascertaining whether she was capable of a controlled and diplomatic reaction to such shocking news. In reality he was going through the main points of the plan and checking that she was in agreement about how to proceed.

A brief call to a servant for a glass of water, while she sat looking rather overwhelmed on a couch, was enough to establish the idea that she was startled but not hysterical, and Vader was soon able to call in a handful of advisors with whom he had already discussed the 'Alderaan report' and inform them that Senator Organa understood the need for a united appearance to guide public opinion in the light of these revelations.

The plan progressed much as they had discussed, with a joint public statement and a small group of press permitted to put written questions to both Senator and Palace. The media in general reacted with polite deference, repeating the official line and citing the need for careful optimism about increased political openness. A small number of less-mainstream media outlets made predictable comments about government cover-ups and the lack of opportunity for debate, along with calls for the Senate to address this kind of issue urgently.

By the time the Senate began its first official session, Leia had fielded calls from a number of senators eager to hear what line she was planning to take, and she had primed them to expect a mixture of positive comments about Emperor Vader's handling of the report - it had not been denied, the media had not been stifled, and only one person had been summarily executed (in fact Luke had shown her evidence of this man's corrupt dealings which had filtered off funds from hospitals to his own accounts) - and criticism of the focus on military control and the harm caused by lack of opportunity for proper political discussion to resolve the issues which led to rebellion against the Empire. It was not to be the most polished speech a senator had ever given, and was carefully planned to sound like an impassioned plea for peace and co-operation from a young woman still reeling from the revelations about the destruction of her home.

 

As the days followed, public opinion swayed, with articles for and against the kind of tight media control which had stifled the report in the first place, and on whether Emperor Vader had been justified in executing the whistle-blower (that discussion soon ended when it was revealed that he had been paid for the leaked information rather than doing it out of public spirit). The opening sessions of the Senate were covered in great detail, since the text of Senator Organa's speech had been deemed suitable for publication (most media had checked with the Palace first).

Gradually, there was an increase in reporting of views contrary to the official position of the palace, and as no-one was arrested, confidence grew until editors felt able to express mildly controversial views themselves. The Senate also debated topics with a greater sense of freedom, though some of the senators were confused at first at not being told by the palace what they ought to think on the subject under discussion. Some contradicted themselves even within the same speech in their attempts not to come down on one side or the other until they knew what they were 'meant' to think and say.

As days turned to weeks, Leia started Senate motions herself, on behalf of individuals and groups who had come to her in her position as representative of those affected by the war. The other senators were very respectful and tended to vote in favour without much actual debate, and she occasionally had to stifle an urge to start an entirely frivolous motion just to see if they would pass it with an equal amount of solemnity.

Media, Senate, and ordinary members of the public grew in confidence. The ceasefire continued to hold, apart from a few minor scuffles. Leia continued to be in contact with the rebel leadership, who were cautiously optimistic about the chances of democracy actually working. And she was in regular contact with Emperor Vader, now quite openly, as he had ensured she was invited to sit on a number of committees and advisory boards and also advised him privately on issues which had come up in the course of her work with refugees and others. The fact that Luke generally also attended these meetings was not so widely known, though he was visible around the court more frequently than before. 

It was at one of these private meetings that the subject of peace negotiations came up.

"There are some preliminary steps which will have to be in place before we can even discuss the possibility of sitting around the same table" said Vader, "but I believe the time is right to begin the process."

Leia assented eagerly, the political process was moving on, but it had to widen to include the issues that the Rebel Alliance had always fought for, if it was to be a lasting solution.

"One issue which has always caused difficulties in negotiations is that people like to look at one another directly to judge their mood and intentions, and in my case the mask has always impeded that process." Luke seemed oddly tense as Vader added this. Perhaps Vader's medical condition was difficult for him too? She had always avoided thinking about anything physical between the two of them, it seemed so inappropriate to even consider the possibility.

After a pause, Vader continued. "I know that you were sceptical when Luke told you that I had changed, and in some ways that is my own fault as I have striven to maintain a sense of continuity. When I took over as Emperor it seemed necessary to seem unchanged from the man Palpatine named as his heir many years earlier. One aspect which I chose not to reveal then is that there has been a physical change over the past few years. The limitations which require me to wear this suit have lessened to a great extent. In fact, to this extent -" and with this he removed the back of the black helmet from his head, and then loosened the mask from his face.

Leia steeled herself not to react to whatever she saw. It was widely assumed that he was terribly scarred and deformed under the suit, and whatever medical procedures he had endured to assist his health would be unlikely to have materially improved his appearance. She could not help her reaction however when she saw his face revealed. He was not deformed in the least. There were scars - a great many - but mostly faded and not badly raised. The worst ran from his forehead across one eye and down his cheek, and puckered the skin badly, but the overall appearance was more piratical than ugly, and at least he had not lost the eye. The bright blue eye. The eye that was a match not just for one other, but for three others in the room. Her own eyes flicked back and forth between them - blond hair, Vader's a darker shade but similarly wavy, the eyes of course, and the chin. The overall shape of the face differed though, Luke's cheekbones higher and more prominent, and his face more delicate in general. His build and height obviously quite different too. Their smiles were very much the same, a little crooked, but both reaching those blue, blue eyes.

Luke spoke first - "Two secrets for the price of one. You're one of only a handful to know, and the others knew who I was before they saw Father without the mask, so that's the first time I've seen quite how obvious the resemblance is when someone sees us together for the first time."

Leia collected herself, and stammered an apology for staring.

"No. It is I who should apologise. For this and for a great many things." Vader's voice was still recognisable, though rather less deep, without the vocaliser. He still spoke in a slow and deliberate way, no doubt being so accustomed to the limitations of the technology he had relied on that it had become an ingrained habit. "I have made a great many wrong decisions in my life. I will make no attempt to excuse or lessen them. All that I can do is to ensure that I act from now on to ameliorate the harm already done, both by my action and inaction."

Leia nodded. For the first time she could actually believe that Vader had changed.


	5. Chapter 5

Leia’s belief that Vader had changed was to be rocked only a few days later. She had agreed with Vader and Luke that she would not mention his health to others, allowing him to gradually start rumours about medical treatment over a period of weeks and months before appearing in public without the mask. And she had agreed to a public ceremony to unveil a plaque in memory of the people of Alderaan.

And so she found herself standing in a public plaza while speeches were made. They had almost reached the moment when she and Emperor Vader would jointly unveil the plaque when there was a sudden commotion. Three men ran up from different directions, each throwing a pot of liquid directly at Vader's mask. One missed completely, and the liquid bubbled and hissed on the metal rail where it landed. Leia turned in horror to Vader, to see his face mask deforming and the front panel of his suit crackling and flickering. At the same time, Luke leapt on one of the attackers, felling him, then chased a second, pulling something from the back of his jacket and igniting a light saber as he ran. Meanwhile, Vader had grabbed the third and was holding him by the neck as he kicked and scrabbled. The mask was covering little of his face now, and his eyes blazed a fiery red as he choked the life out of his attacker. Leia felt the familiar bone-chilling terror that Vader's presence had always inspired in her, the sense of utter evil pervading her senses.

Luke was returning now, dragging the third man along and shoving him into the hands of waiting guards, who had been completely caught out by the suddenness of the attack, before standing in front of Vader looking saddened. He made no attempt to stop what his father was doing.

Leia blazed with anger at both of them. No matter what the man had done, he did not need to be slowly choked to death. She grabbed Vader's arm and shouted something incoherent at him. His gaze turned on her and she fell silent, realizing the huge risk she was taking, but his eyes dulled and he let go of the man, then shouted orders at the guards before striding off to the waiting transport with Luke following close behind.

 

Afterwards she could not remember anything about getting back to her apartment, but once there she slowly changed out of her official finery and took a long bath, scrubbing off the feeling of dirt and evil that had stayed with her before dressing again in something more casual. Then she called a food delivery service, unable to face going out even to a local restaurant.

The door chimed. But outside it was Luke, holding the trays of hot food. "I intercepted your delivery man. I think we need to talk."

She briefly considered slamming the door in his face, but she could not avoid him for ever. She turned on her heel and walked back into the living room of her apartment in silence.

"I... am sorry. I know how much that shocked you."

"Sorry!? You're sorry? Oh that makes it fine then. You've tricked me into supporting the continuation of a Sith Empire, where we can debate all day in the Senate but it doesn't make a kriffing bit of difference because our Emperor is the personification of evil itself. But you're sorry. That's supposed to make me calm down like a good little girl, is it? Or maybe you'll just wave your hand and I'll calm down anyway, and just forget it was ever a problem? Because don't think I don't know what it means, that was a light saber you used, just like Vader's, which makes a second of the rumours about you true. You're a Sith too, and his heir in more ways than one. Don't bother to deny it. I just can't believe I was stupid enough to trust either of you!"

Luke stood silent throughout her tirade, not trying to interrupt or deny anything.

"So - what next? Do you just wave your hand so I forget, or are you here to silence me properly?"

"I would never do that Leia. Kill you, or alter your memory, or try to influence you. I ... damn. I wish I could say I'd never even thought of doing any of those things, would never have considered them. But... I can't lie to you then ask you to ever trust me again. I... when we talked on the terrace... I did try to influence you, to convince you to trust me. I wasn't lying, I was telling you the truth in everything I said. But I did attempt, for a short while, to push you towards trusting me when you wouldn't otherwise. That was wrong of me."

"So that's why I listened to you? You were manipulating me all along?"

"No! I... did try to, but you felt it, almost at once. You felt that you could trust me for a moment, but then you... pushed it away. I've never tried anything like that again, and I won't in the future. It was a stupid short-cut and risked you mistrusting me far worse."

"So... why do you try to influence people if they can feel it and stop you?"

He blushed. "Mostly they can't. I... hope you don't think I make a habit of it, I don't go around making people think things or do things that they didn't intend. Mostly I just use it to stop people from noticing me."

She must have looked disbelieving, because he clarified. "I have spent a lot more time at court in the past few years than most people realise, and more time travelling with Vader. But people tend to overlook me, when I want them to, and forget about me once I'm out of sight. Even when they remember seeing me, they pay very little attention to anything I did or said, or to things they said in front of me. It has been useful, allowing me to report on things that weren't exactly secret but were not intended to get out."

"So why did I notice, did you get sloppy?"

He shook his head. "You are Force sensitive. You can feel things that most people can't. You have always had a feel for when people are honest or lying, haven't you? And sometimes a sense that something was important though it didn't seem so on the surface, or that something was about to happen?"

She nodded, confused. "That's just intuition, lots of people feel like that. It just means my subconscious has noticed things that I can't quite recognise consciously. There's nothing special about it."

"You have it far more than most people though, don't you Leia? I suspect you have a lot of potential in the Force, though you've never had a chance to train it... You... do know what I'm talking about don't you - the Force, the power that Jedi and Sith draw on?"

She nodded "My father fought with Jedi back in the Clone Wars, he told me about it, though he made me promise not to mention it to anyone. I guess you don't exactly count in the circumstances."

"Well, those who have a lot of potential tend to use the Force unconsciously, without realising that's what they're doing. In the past, you would have been recognised and trained by the Jedi. As it is, you feel things without knowing why. And that's why you could feel that I was using the Force to try to influence you, and why I haven't tried anything like that again. You would know if I had."

She nodded, she had felt strange for a while when he was talking on the terrace, as if she ought to trust him, but then she had seen the oddness of the feeling, known it wasn't right, and focussed back on her own genuine feelings. The trust she had felt since had been genuine, based on his words and actions. But that came back to the current loss of trust. He was a Sith apprentice, and Vader was still a Sith. Any claims that he had changed were false, he was the same as he had always been, the horror that she had always experienced around him had been back in full strength while he had been choking his attacker. A thought struck her - "Does this unconscious use of the Force show me other things too? Is that why... why Vader feels like a cold dark pit?"   
He looked at her in surprise. "Is that what you feel around him? Always?"

She nodded, then shook her head. "Before, yes. Not for a while. Again this afternoon."

His expression was startled. "I didn't realise you'd be able to feel anything like that... He... he has felt different lately though hasn't he? Since the terrace, all your meetings between then and this afternoon?"

She nodded slowly, her tentative trust in Vader had only been able to develop in the absence of that feeling of chill dread. "I haven't felt that between the terrace and today. He has felt... warm?... the rest of the time."

"Did... did you ever meet Palpatine in person?" She shuddered involuntarily at the memory. "I'll take that as a yes." Luke continued dryly.

"Just once, when I was twelve", she replied. "I had pestered my father to bring me to Coruscant, and I was allowed to come to a reception, so long as I promised to be on my best behaviour. I wasn't actually introduced to Emperor Palpatine, but I saw him quite close up, I was looking out from behind other people. He... it was like..." she tried to put the feeling into words that could do it justice. "It felt like the smell of something rotting, long dead, pulled up from the bottom of a swamp. But it wasn't a smell, just a feeling."

He was nodding. "The first time I met him I couldn't stop shaking. I got better at hiding it, but the feeling was the same, something rotten and evil. I learned enough control to stop the shaking, over time, but the feeling was still there whenever I was near him."

"You must have been a small child, though, it's hardly surprising."

Luke shook his head. "Thirteen"

Leia couldn't hide her surprise. "Oh, I thought..." she trailed off, she had simply assumed he had grown up around the court.

"No, I didn't come to live with Father until I was thirteen. My first meeting with Palpatine was soon after. He... didn't think much of me, thought I was a weak, useless little thing, couldn't see why Father bothered with me. I don't think he ever really changed that opinion. Which was good in its way - being useful to Palpatine wasn't exactly a healthy thing to be either. Being ignored worked fine." He paused, then shook himself. "Anyway, we were talking about your experiences, not mine. You can feel the Dark Side of the Force, that's the side that you feel as unpleasant emotions. That's what you used to feel from Father, what you felt again today. He... he has changed, genuinely, but it's not a once-for-all kind of thing. Once you have allowed the Dark Side to rule you, you don't just wake up one morning and change your mind. Or, rather, you can but it doesn't let go so easily. When he is angry, it is always there, always waiting. It is rare now, it takes a lot more than just irritation to set him off. But he may never be completely free of it. I'm sorry that I wasn't honest with you, but I didn't think you'd be able to deal with all this in one go. I wanted you to get to know him first, hoped we'd have longer to work together before you saw anything like that, so that you would know it was the exception, not the norm for him now."

She sat in silence for a while, trying to take all of this in. What he said had the feel of truth about it, and her feelings told her clearly enough that Vader had not been like this all these weeks. The warmer, calm, politically-astute Vader was not an act. But neither was the Sith Lord.

"So, has he switched back now? How long does it last? An hour, a day, a week?"

Luke shrugged "Until he fights it back into its pit. In this case, it was over by the time we left there. I think you shouting at him startled him back into some awareness of what he was doing, and gave him the edge over it. His eyes were blue again by the time we got into the transport."

Leia remembered the blazing red eyes turned on her as she shouted, and the way the fire had gone out of them before Vader had let go his grip on the man he was holding.

"I think that's one of the reasons he is hesitant about giving up the mask and suit. As things stand, people who know him may guess when he slips back to being a Sith, but if his face can be seen then his failure is more obvious. He claims that people will be confused by the change, will ask about his medical treatment, will wonder if he ever needed the suit, but basically he has got used to having something to hide behind. I think knowing he can be seen would give him extra strength to fight against it, but he isn't convinced and keeps delaying making any announcement."

"Once the media talk about what happened today, surely the fact he can manage without the mask will be obvious?"

Luke hesitated. "Well, that sort of depends what the media decide to report, doesn't it?"

Leia raised an eyebrow. Luke had the grace to blush. "So he's planning to shut them up?"

"I know you believe in the media being free to report anything, but do you think it helps anyone if they talk about Vader nearly strangling someone? Or about my having a light saber?"

She frowned. "About that... you've never felt... Dark. So are you a Sith? Or what? The Jedi are all dead, aren't they, so I don't see how you could be that."

"I... don't know. Seriously. I'm sure I don't use the Dark Side of the Force. But I've never been taught by a Jedi either. Father has shown me some things that he was taught at the Jedi Temple but..." he broke off at her startled expression. "Oh, um, not to be repeated, please?"

"I get the feeling I'm owed a lot of explanations, and quite a few favours, if I'm going to keep Vader's plan on the road."

He looked blank for a moment, then smiled. "If you're willing to keep working with us, I think you'll be able to ask for pretty much anything you want."


	6. Chapter 6

She didn't like to think of it as a list of demands, that would be quite inappropriate, but when she arrived at the Palace the next morning, she certainly had a list of topics she wanted to address. But the most significant was also the most vague.

She was shown into a pleasant sitting room, with Luke and a mask-less Vader arriving almost at once. She felt wary of him, but her eyes and 'other' sense told her that there was no need for concern. It was the warm, blue-eyed Vader today.

"Thank you for being prepared to continue working with me. I know that my behaviour yesterday was unacceptable. I... can only assure you that I feel as disappointed in myself as you do. And, thank you for challenging my actions. It is a long time since anyone had that kind of influence over me." He seemed about to say more about that, but stopped himself, then continued instead "Luke has told me that you have questions, about me, about the past. I think you have earned the right to ask them, though I cannot guarantee that I will answer them as fully as you might wish. I promise that I will not lie or evade, however, if I choose not to answer then I will be honest about that fact. Is that sufficient?"

Leia nodded, wondering where to start, then decided to go straight to the question which she wondered about most. "Why did you change? I can tell that at some point between the Death Star and our meeting on the terrace, you changed very significantly, but I don't see why someone would do that after many years as a Sith Lord, and second in command of the Empire. What happened?"

He was silent for a long time, so long that she thought his reply was going to be a refusal to address the subject, but instead he said "The destruction of Alderaan, and Luke's reaction to it, shocked me into thinking about my life in a way that I had been avoiding for a long time. I don't know to what extent you were aware of Luke in the aftermath of the explosion, your attention would have been on the destruction itself rather than someone else's reaction to it."

"When I looked back on it later, I thought that he had been close to fainting. And he mentioned a medical transfer?" she looked across at Luke, not sure quite how much to repeat of what he had said.

"I collapsed, completely. By then I had developed a greater awareness of the Force, but I had no way to shield myself from it. So many sudden deaths caused a wave of reaction through the Force and when it hit me, my thoughts and feelings, it completely overwhelmed me and I shut down. Father got me immediately to a medical transport and away from the Death Star. He knew that it would be moving almost at once to another system, to destroy the rebel base, and he didn't want me to be there when that happened."   
"I knew why Luke had collapsed, and I knew why I myself had not. The Dark Side might be powerful and seductive, but I had always had regrets about my choice. I had hoped that becoming powerful would allow me to protect those I loved, but I was tricked. Or I tricked myself. A little of each perhaps. But I had given my life to something that had only brought pain and suffering, to my family as well as myself. Luke's arrival in my life had triggered thoughts and memories, reminding me of my desire to protect those who were mine, but now I had brought him into a situation where his very life was under threat because of what I did, and what I had chosen not to do. I had argued against the building of the Death Star, but I had not prevented it from being built, deployed, used. I could have killed Tarkin before he gave the order, could have made the weapon malfunction, but I did neither. And Luke was unconscious because of that failure. I... would like to be able to claim that your own suffering had some influence on me, but I must confess that it did not. Caring about people in a general sense was beyond me then. I only cared for Luke, and even that was largely about possessiveness rather than love. I was unaffected by billions of deaths, but the suffering of my own child could still get through to me."

Leia nodded. It was strange to think of someone having such a warped world-view, but Vader's description made it at least conceivable that he could have had those feelings.

"Luke was ill for a long time. Which gave me a long time to consider what I had done with my life. Sidious couldn't understand why I wanted to spend time with Luke when he was so weak and ill. His failure to even understand that tiny spark of humanity that was left in me made it even starker, the distinction between what I had had as a young man, and what I had now, and how close I had come to losing even that."

"Sidious?"

"Palpatine's Sith name, Darth Sidious. He had never had any interest in Luke, viewed him only as a relic of a past that was long gone. When he first found out that my child had survived, he had all kinds of plans to train him, but his first meeting with Luke did not go well, and he realised that Luke could never be trained as a Sith. He showed so little potential in the Force that Sidious did not view him as a threat either, so he allowed me to keep my son with me so long as I did not acknowledge him openly - his heir having an heir might have made things complicated politically, so very few people were aware of Luke’s existence. Sidious occasionally asked to see him, but he never saw anything which changed his initial assessment. The collapse on the Death Star cemented that opinion, and I don’t think he ever gave another thought to Luke after that."

"It sounds like Palpatine was every bit as unpleasant in person as I imagined then."

"Yes. He managed to conceal much of his evil in public, though that was largely by only giving appearances where there was no need to actually speak to anyone. So long as he was speaking about politics he could sound quite normal, but he never had any genuine understanding of emotions, beyond how to manipulate them to achieve his own ends.... Anyway, the change in me dates back to then. It was gradual at first, just a reluctance to cause suffering when it could easily be avoided, a recognition of emotions in others, an understanding that people could believe something different from my own beliefs without necessarily being wrong or stupid." He smiled. "I see from your expression that you find it hard to believe. I have read about the development of children and adolescents, and how they have to learn and relearn that the world is full of other people with just as much right to their own views. And I have to conclude that I went through a similar learning process while already in my thirties, which is hardly flattering. But the Dark Side of the Force takes away all need for tolerance and understanding, even for real emotion, until there is only desire and anger. And I had been living with that for many years. It took years for me to develop out of it, with many setbacks along the way. But I had Luke to help me, at first simply as a reminder that I had a reason to live in the real world again, and later as an actual human being to value and care for, until one day I realised that I could feel the presence of the Force in a way that I had not in a very long time. Then Luke and I started meditating and training together, which allowed him to develop his natural talents, and me to rediscover mine."

"Did ... Sidious know about this?"

"Not to any great extent. He knew that I was changing. In fact he was the direct cause of many of my setbacks. He would order me into some situation where I would need to use the Dark Side, or where I would be angered into it. That would reassure him that I was still his, that I was only trying to rebel against him. He could understand that, it is normal for Sith to rebel against their master. In fact it is the ultimate test, for the apprentice to kill the master and therefore become the master in turn."

"But you... didn't..."

There was a brief glance between Vader and Luke, a quick flash of question and answer, almost too quick to follow, then Vader answered smoothly "No. I didn't kill Sidious". Leia looked between them. It was true, that much she was sure of. And yet... "Did ... you... kill Sidious?"

Luke blushed. "I kinda hoped you wouldn't think to ask that one. But... yes. I did."


	7. Chapter 7

"Did ... you... kill Sidious?"

Luke blushed. "I kinda hoped you wouldn't think to ask that one. But... yes. I did."

"In the circumstances, I certainly can't blame you. But if he was a powerful Sith Lord, and he didn't think you had much power, then how did you manage it?" Leia was intensely curious about how this unassuming young man could have killed the Emperor himself.

"Well... you remember I told you about using the Force to not be noticed? And about people who have Force potential using it without realising?" Leia nodded. "I think I had got very good at not being noticed before I ever met Sidious, without realising I was using the Force to do it. I grew up in a rough area, and was always quite small for my age. I got picked on, and started to wish the bigger boys couldn't see me. I don't think real invisibility is possible, but they stopped paying me any attention. Anyone that I was nervous around would tend to overlook the fact that I was even there. When Vader found me, he took me to Sidious because he couldn't have me live with him without permission. I was nervous about the meeting before it even happened, and then when I met Sidious I was terrified. I think I 'hid' so well and so automatically that Sidious didn't even realise it was happening. He looked for me in the Force, to see my potential, but I think that was as unnoticeable as the rest of me, and he dismissed me completely. He was very arrogant, and it wouldn't even have occurred to him that it could have been his own error. He looked at me a few more times, since Force potential often develops around adolescence, but saw nothing to catch his attention. Later, once we started training, I would try things out deliberately to see if I could 'hide' what I was doing from Father, so I could develop without Sidious guessing anything. Finally, we decided that it was time to act, and Father took me to Coruscant with him. I went into the throne room with him, for a meeting where the two of them were supposed to be alone, and I stopped his heart. It was very quick, he had no time to defend himself. Not the most exciting overthrow of a tyrant, but perhaps one of the most efficient. It was put down as a heart attack, and Vader inherited the Imperial throne."

"And then you started planning for the future"

Luke shook his head. "No, we had been planning for a long time. We knew that simply replacing Emperor Palpatine with Emperor Vader would not make enough of a difference, that we needed a strategy for making genuine change if we were to achieve a truly peaceful galaxy. Father was reluctant to recall the Senate at first, it was largely toothless in Palpatine's time, and riddled with corruption before that, but any attempt to create a new body would have been slow and difficult, so it seemed better to start from that and consider how to get it to change. The likely public reaction to a big cover-up was a fairly obvious choice, and that led on to the question of what kind of cover-up. Alderaan stuck out as the most blatant example, sure to get heated reaction, and Father and I both remembered that your father had been the senator and therefore you would inherit. Your strength of character, and your involvement with the Rebels, made it likely that you would be good at what was needed, and the fact that you were a pretty young woman who had been orphaned in the attack guaranteed public interest and sympathy." He paused. "I'm sorry to talk so clinically about something so important to you, but I didn't really know you as a person beyond the impression you gave me at our first meeting, which was more about you being very strong and not hesitating to argue for what you believed in no matter what the potential cost. I didn't think nearly enough about the pain and grief you had gone through at the time or since. I'm truly sorry if what we pushed you into has caused you pain, or if you regret having become involved."

"I... well I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been painful. Or that I haven't wondered why I let you talk me into this. But... I do understand what you are trying to do and why, and I think you are right that it has to be done. I'm not sure I'd have gone about it quite the same way, but... it's working. That's the amazing thing. Even if you have gone about things in a way I would never have considered, and even if you have been cynical about it, the fact remains that you have got the Senate to develop into a genuine political force, and you have got a ceasefire which has held, and the press feel capable of discussing the issues openly. So, all in all, I have to say I'm glad that you did talk me into it. Even if I wouldn't have agreed if I had known a fraction of this at the start... I have to say, it's lucky that I seem to be able to know that you are telling the truth about this, I would still have been very suspicious if I couldn't feel the difference in you between then and now."

"It is quite remarkable" Vader replied. "I met Bail Organa many times, and he had no unusual Force potential, of that I am sure. He spent a lot of time with the Jedi, so it would have been noticed if he had. I only met your mother once, quite briefly. Did she have an unusual level of insight and intuition?"

She suppressed the thought that had come instantly into her head at the question, but not quickly enough it seemed, as Luke stared at her before stammering an apology. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to read what you were thinking, but, well you practically shouted. You were adopted?"

Leia hesitated, but Luke's uncanny ability to hear her thoughts had already unearthed her secret, and in truth there was no real need now to keep it hidden.

"I was adopted as a baby. My parents always told me to keep it a secret from everyone, even the Imperial database doesn't show it. But they would never tell me anything about my birth parents, so I don't know any more than that. I wondered sometimes.... my father told me so many stories about the Jedi that I thought perhaps that was his way of telling me that's who my parents had been. But then he also told me a great many stories about politics, the Senate, people he had known there. It's very likely he was simply talking about things he cared about, and I was just some abandoned child."

"I'm sorry, that must have been so difficult for you" 

She shook her head. "No. My parents were wonderful people and they loved me. I couldn't have been happier. I never wished for other parents, I was just intrigued by not knowing. And now I probably never will know, and I shall simply get on with my life as Leia Organa, and not worry about it." She smiled. 

Vader was frowning. "Jedi were forbidden from forming attachments, and it was rare for them to have children, but there were rumours about a number of them, about secret relationships and children who had been hidden away. The Imperial database holds information on all of them, if you wanted to find out the truth."

“No. “ Leia was quite clear in her own mind, and always had been. “I had parents who loved me. That’s all that matters. Finding out that someone I had never met was genetically related wouldn’t change anything. I prefer to think of myself as the child of Bail and Breha Organa, nothing else”


	8. Chapter 8

“He did what?!” Leia could barely take in Mon Mothma’s words. Being awoken in the early hours to an urgent communication was never ideal, but this was worse than she could have imagined.  
“His source said clearly that the convoy contained military equipment that was being readied for a strike against us. Madine decided that he had to strike hard and fast”  
“And the fact that we have a ceasefire? That the Senate are discussing restitution for war crimes? That we have a real possibility of peace talks? Does all that mean nothing to him?”  
“Leia, he believed the convoy was a real threat. That Vader was plotting to break the ceasefire once and for all. That the Senate is a meaningless charade which would be disbanded as soon as Vader lured us into a false sense of security.”  
“Mon…” Leia fought to push down her anger. It was clear that Mon had not authorised the action, though she was doing her best to be loyal to her people despite what they had done. “Mon, this may be the end of everything. You have to see that. A convoy of refugees… It doesn’t get much worse. I am supposed to stand up in the Senate tomorrow and graciously accept their offer of compensation on behalf of a handful of people displaced by Imperial actions. And now, tonight, Madine blows up a ship full of refugees… What do I do, Mon? Do I resign? Apologise? Tell them it was an honest mistake?”  
“Perhaps it doesn’t have to come out?”  
Leia just stared at the screen until Mon blushed and retracted her last comment. “Of course, it’s bound to come out. We can’t expect anyone to hush this up, but… if Vader wants peace, this won’t be in his interests either…”  
No” Leia sighed. “No it won’t be in his interests. And I have to go to the Palace and tell him about it.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She had feared an explosion of anger.  
The sense of tired resignation was somehow worse. Vader had sat and listened to her faltering explanation, had stared blankly at the screen as Luke pulled up details and reports, had looked simply old and tired in the face of such a huge obstacle in the path of his plans for peace in the galaxy.  
Luke though… Luke was frowning and tapping his fingers on the table in an absent-minded pattern. Luke was thinking of something…

“How attached is Mon Mothma to General Madine? There have been persistent rumours…”  
Leia blushed a little.  
“They… they are lovers if that’s what you mean. But they… that is it isn’t… I mean they don’t seem…”  
“More of a convenience kind of thing then?”  
Leia nodded.  
“So her loyalty to him wouldn’t be likely to get in the way of good sense then? If she had to choose between him and her principles?”  
“No, but the two usually coincide…”  
“Not tonight though. Tonight her principles must have taken quite a hit.”  
“True”  
“She has to cut him off. Now. Right now, tonight, so that her statement is in the media alongside the reports of what he did. She has to completely and utterly distance the Rebel Alliance from what Madine did, if we are to salvage anything out of this mess. And you must denounce him in the Senate tomorrow. You cannot afford to have any connections drawn between you and terrorist action. We’ve rehabilitated Alderaan. We’ve glossed over your father’s connections to the Rebellion. We’ve established you as a political figure, pro-peace, neutral in your support of all those harmed by military action on either side of the conflict. You have to be as vehement in your condemnation of Madine’s actions as you have been of Imperial actions. It’s the only way, Leia. The only way we get out of this with any hope of peace in this generation.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They had managed it.  
Leia still wasn’t sure how. What favours had been called in, what pressure put to bear, what threats made. But somehow the media had convinced the public to believe in the existence of a moderate ‘Alliance for the Restoration of the Republic’, full of idealists who wanted only a political discussion about greater democracy, and a separate ‘Rebel terrorist faction’ full of wild-eyed extremists for whom the changes already brought in or likely to follow would never be enough, and who thought nothing of using violence to achieve their goals.  
Madine of course was the leader of the ‘bad’ rebels, publicly denounced by Mon Mothma, and now on the run with a small number of supporters. There was truth in it, of course… but it was a massive distortion of the situation. It had been necessary. Leia was sure about that. But still… she pushed down her unease. Madine had brought this on himself, and they had been lucky to be able to salvage anything out of the mess. The Rebel Alliance would survive this, that was what mattered.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We need to get the peace negotiations going right away.”  
Leia frowned. It was good that Luke believed it would still be possible to hold talks, after what had happened, but surely this was rushing things? It would seem odd for the ‘moderate’ rebels to move towards talks so fast.  
“Won’t that seem strange to the public?”  
Luke shook his head. “Not if we say that the talks were already being planned. That Mon Mothma and the rest of the Council of the Alliance had already agreed to the process, and that it was that which prompted the extremists to make a desperate move”  
Leia frowned again. Events seemed to be running away with them so fast recently. The Senate had voted to outlaw various splinter organisations with links to the Rebellion, on the basis that they had provided support for violent action. There was a public backlash against a number of other organisations which had been slow to condemn Madine and his group, caught out perhaps by the speed of what had followed. Leia had a sense of being swept along by history rather than carefully creating it, the role she had hoped her position as a Senator would give her.  
But… it was all necessary. She could not argue against Luke’s conclusions. She could only regret how fast they were all being pushed by the changing nature of reality…  
“I will contact Mon privately and get her up to speed on this. She has always agreed that there should be talks, she’ll just be startled by the speed. But when you make your official offer, I’ll make sure she’s ready.”


	9. Chapter 9

“It must have been a lot of work to get everything ready so quickly. Thank you for all your efforts.”  
“Oh it was no trouble at all miss. We’ve been making preparations for months now.” The assistant to the manager of the facility looked suitably calm and unflustered, but Leia couldn’t help but be aware of the levels of work that were needed once a date was set for any event, no matter how much was done ahead of time.  
She smiled though, the young woman was clearly intent on putting her at ease, maintaining a reassuring façade doubtless an important part of the job.

Leia was here along with several other senators as neutral parties. It felt strange and wrong not to be a part of the Alliance delegation, but Luke had been very clear about the need for her to keep her distance from them, both politically and physically. The layout of the complex made that simple enough, with the Imperial party in one wing and the Alliance in another, the neutrals arranged neatly between the two, their political positions mirrored in the floor plan. Though it had not been quite as neat as all that – Emperor Vader’s personal physician had taken one look at the set of rooms which had been arranged for him and utterly vetoed them. If Leia had not had the chance to get to know Vader more personally these past months, she would have assumed that he was simply throwing his weight around to emphasise his own importance. He was not immune from such acts of course, but when he indulged them it was always to some political purpose rather than an expression of personal vanity.  
And so the unflappable manager and his unflappable assistant had escorted the doctor around the entire facility, then rearranged rooms, reassigned security passes, and acted as though swapping the entire arrangement around was a trivial piece of work.  
By the time the main parties had arrived, Mon Mothma could be escorted straight to what had been intended as the Imperial Suite without the faintest hesitation, while Emperor Vader was shown to a set of rooms that had been intended for no less than three of the Alliance Council as though it had always been the plan.

 

The attack came that night.  
A growing sense of unease had troubled Leia all evening, and she had tossed and turned for several hours before finally drifting into a troubled sleep. The fear had been unfocussed, starting as a mere nervousness about the next morning and the first of the official meetings that it would bring. But as the evening had progressed, with a stilted formal dinner presided over by Vader in his armoured suit and mask – Luke had hoped that his father might be ready to reveal his face to the galaxy before they reached a stage where actual negotiations were possible, but events had overtaken them – her concern had settled into the pit of her stomach as a formless dread, amorphous but powerful. What could go wrong? Privately, the Alliance had already passed on the message that they would make certain concessions, and Vader had equally privately assured them that certain points of importance to them would go through. The negotiations were not a mere formality, far from it, but both sides were intent on making this work, and were here in the expectation of reaching a viable settlement that would allow peace and democracy to thrive.  
She did not know quite what it was she feared, until the night was ripped by an explosion that rang in her ears and lived on in a dazzling array of lights on her retina as their source settled down to the flickering orange glow of flames.   
She ran, struggling into a robe even as she sprinted down the corridor towards the source of the sound and light. Towards the Alliance area. Towards her friends.

The scene was one of utter devastation.  
The blast had taken out huge chunks of the side walls, and the roof had collapsed in on the rooms below. Flames blazed skyward from every part of the wing. Others joined her, silent for the most part, robbed of words by the scale of the damage, the ferocity of the fire.  
A sprinkler system was operating in what remained of the hallway between that wing and the central part of the complex, damping down ash as it fell.  
Leia dully wondered if they should be doing more to prevent the fire from spreading, as pieces of burning material floated up from the ruined building on currents of hot air. There was a vague thought that she should be taking charge, making things happen, but in truth there was nothing she could do but stand and stare as the rooms her friends had doubtless been asleep in were consumed by the fire. Gone. All of them. At this hour of the morning they would all have been asleep, or if they had not then they would have been in their rooms quietly failing to sleep without disrupting others. They were gone.   
The Imperials were taking charge now, setting up equipment to douse the flames, keeping confused bystanders away from the danger zone. 

“Your Majesty it isn’t safe. Please, sir”  
Leia turned blankly to look at where Vader had emerged from the central building, surrounded by guards and flanked by one of his courtiers who was trying vainly to convince him to turn back. Quite why the man thought that the Sith Lord and erstwhile Commander of the Imperial Forces would be afraid of an explosion was a mystery, but the presence of danger did strange things to most people’s mental processes. Leia recognised her own blankness as a reaction to the fact that she had no role here, no part to play.

Vader simply turned from him and gazed out – not at the burning building, Leia realised with a jolt, but into the darkness beyond, where the sculptured grounds lay in a darkness only heightened by the brightness of the flames. For long moments she wondered what he found so fascinating out there, until at last her own eyesight picked out movement. Two shapes, moving patches of dark against the greater darkness.  
The guards closed in around Vader, their weapons trained on the figures as they became clearer, but Vader himself showed no signs of concern.  
As the shapes grew more distinct and larger, Leia felt a shock of recognition. Luke! Luke half-dragging another figure that squirmed and tried to free itself. Luke holding the other’s arm up high behind his back and forcing him along.  
As they came closer, Leia could see that Luke was wearing only loose sleep pants and a singlet, his bare feet dirty and scratched. He too had been woken by the explosion then, he too had run from his room.. but he had seen – had sensed? – someone. Some threat… Leia’s unformed assumption that the explosion had a natural cause was broken in the time it took to see Luke’s expression. She had seldom seen him anything but calm and diffident. This version of Luke was neither of those things, his eyes hard and cold, his face grim.  
As they neared the building, the other figure jerked in Luke’s grasp and a thin voice cried out. “No! You were there! I checked. I checked for life signs. You were there! Why aren’t you dead?!” He was staring wildly at Vader as he screamed out the words.  
Leia’s thoughts were still slow. She recognised each step as her mind processed what her eyes and ears took in.  
Why would Vader be dead? Why would the bomber – it must be he – think that?  
Vader would not have been in Mothma’s… oh.   
Vader was meant to be in Mothma’s quarters. The Imperial Suite. The arrangements had only been changed that day, at the last possible moment… too late for those responsible for this outrage to have realised it. There had been no communications in or out of the facility since then, everything locked down to maintain a secure environment for the talks.  
He had blown up the wrong wing…  
He had blown up the wrong side….  
He had blown up the wrong people…  
Leia stifled the urge to giggle. Even as she did so she saw herself, as though from outside. Shock. Perfectly simple, she thought, as she curled up on herself and let the ground come up to meet her, as her legs folded up neatly beneath her body, as the darkness wrapped her gently. I can think about it later was her last thought as she accepted the temporary respite.


	10. Chapter 10

There had been no attempt at continuing or restarting the negotiations.  
The leadership had all been there, at least those who the Emperor could consider meeting. The others… the extremists… had now been hunted down. Most, strangely enough, by Luke personally.  
He seemed to have taken it very much as his own responsibility, the grim mood having continued from the night of the explosion.  
Leia would have been frightened at his behaviour, his single-mindedness, if she had not been certain beyond any question that his signature in the Force was unchanged. She had spent enough time with him, and with his father, to know how unchanging Luke was inside, no matter what his mood on the surface. Even this, even his determination to hunt down every single terrorist, did not cause so much as a flicker of the darkness she had sensed in Vader at times. She had found herself increasingly attuned to Vader as time passed, sensing the subtle changes which accompanied mood swings. Or more often caused meetings to be cut short, to allow him to steady his mood by meditation. Luke had been honest about it. It was generally believed that Emperor Vader still had physical health problems which flared up without warning, leading him to stand up and walk out of meetings. But Leia could feel the difference in him in the Force now, the cold tendrils of the Dark Side against which he still struggled. In the past he had lashed out under their influence. Now he withstood them, though not without difficulty.  
But Luke… Luke never felt like that. Even when he had dragged back the stupid irresponsible rebel who had attempted to kill the Imperials for trying to offer peace. Even then… Leia frowned at the memory. Luke’s control was incredible. Others had shown their anger, their fear, their confusion. But with Luke nothing had shown. Nothing.  
Well, he had always said he was invisible when it suited him, hadn’t he? That even Emperor Palpatine had seen nothing when he looked at the young Luke. Had seen so little potential that he had not thought to train him as an apprentice. An apprentice who would have grown in power until he felt the time was right to kill his former Master and take his place. An apprentice who would have replaced Vader…  
No that didn’t make sense. Vader had been Palpatine’s apprentice, and should have become powerful enough to then kill him and take his place. Instead, Luke had somehow developed enough power, right under Palpatine’s nose, to kill him and elevate his father to… No, that wouldn’t work for a Sith either.  
But she was being silly. Luke was no Sith. They had established that. He showed no sign of being controlled by the Dark Side as his father had been. He wasn’t a Jedi either, lacking the training, but he could use the Force all the same…  
He didn’t feel like General Kenobi – Leia could recognise her response to the old general now, both when she had met him on Alderaan as a child and when he had come for her on the Death Star. He exuded warmth and trustworthiness. Vader did too most of the time. Luke did not. He was … neutral. Invisible. She could not ‘see’ him any more than Palpatine had done, only knew he used the Force because he had told her so.  
Which meant… which meant that she could not be certain that he was not using the Dark Side.  
What if…

She shook herself.  
Luke’s behaviour made it obvious he was using the Force for good. Consider all that he had done. He had defeated Palpatine, and encouraged his father to reform the Empire into a benevolent one. He had arranged peace talks… it was not his fault that they had been so completely destroyed, or that the peace the galaxy now enjoyed had been bought at the cost of the whole of the Council of the Rebel… the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Just as it was not his fault that the Rebel Alliance had been split in two in the first place… that was the fault of whatever source Madine had believed about the convoy…

Madine’s source… it had long been the centre of speculation amongst the rebels just who was passing Madine information. Madine himself had no idea of the identity, beyond the fact that they were highly placed within the Empire. What if…

The idea had been formless at first, a misty shape in the dark.  
She could not have pointed to the first moment when she knew what it meant, what it all meant, right back to their first meeting.  
But once the idea had formed, she could not suppress it.  
The only question was what she could do about it. And that was a very tricky question indeed.


	11. Chapter 11

“No, don’t apologise, it’s always a pleasure to see you Leia”  
Luke’s smile was warm and welcoming, though he looked tired. He had only just returned from picking up another rebel cell, one of the last it seemed, one of the final pieces of grit on the road to a peaceful galaxy… Leia suppressed her urge to grimace at the thought. She had thought long and hard about what to say to Luke, and leaping in with accusations hardly seemed the best approach.  
“Would you care for some tea?”  
Leia shook her head.  
“So, what can I do for you, Leia?”

All her carefully considered words seemed to evaporate in the face of this polite, calm young man. Her suspicions about him were ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.  
And yet… she had come here today quite determined to speak them out loud, even if only once, even if her voice was silenced forever for daring to do it. 

“You were Madine’s source”  
The words were flat and expressionless, pushing their way out of her mouth despite her reluctance, despite the expectation that he would laugh at her.  
His eyes were bright and sharp, cutting right into her as he met her gaze. He did not laugh. He did not get angry and have her thrown out.  
Instead he simply nodded. “I knew we would be having this conversation sometime soon. I had wondered if you might reach that conclusion right away when the explosion happened, but your emotions were too raw after the deaths of your friends, it prevented you from analysing the situation the way you might otherwise have done.”  
“You’re not going to deny it then?” She found herself curiously calm in the face of his admission.  
“Here, now, in private? No Leia, I do not deny it. You hardly need me to warn you how different it would be if you repeated such a ridiculous notion in any other situation.”  
“And you arranged the explosion.”  
He nodded again.  
“You divided the only opposition to your plans into two sections, made martyrs out of one part and hunted down the others as if they were vermin.”  
“I have given the galaxy the peace and democracy that it deserves, that it needs.”  
“And the fact that you killed innocent people to do it? That doesn’t bother you at all?”  
Luke shrugged.  
“Define ‘innocent’. The Rebel Alliance condoned and directly committed violence to achieve their goals. Their deaths have cemented most of the aims they brought with them to the negotiating table. The Senate was shocked into accepting more and stronger proposals than they would have stomached through a negotiated settlement. And the fact that the Rebels died in violence as they had lived makes it less likely that others will want to follow in their footsteps.”  
“Was… was that always the plan? From the first? Did you never think it was worth trying to achieve peace without murdering them?” Leia could feel a cold anger building in her at the thought.  
Luke shrugged again, a half smile on his face.  
“Dear sweet Leia, the future is not built by negotiation and debate. It is not a slow and steady progress. The future is born in violent acts, those are the moments that define us. Calm and steady progress is what we strive for in the times between those moments, but by its very nature a gradual change cannot bring the kind of shift that is needed to move the galaxy onto a different course. The big moments, the dramatic moments, those are the ones that bring true change. I eased the galaxy up to that moment as gently as I could, and I will steer it forwards from here. But we could not shift from Palpatine’s Empire to mine without this, truly we could not.”

“And you expect me to just accept that? That it is your empire now? That you get to choose?” The anger inside her was burning more fiercely now. The sheer arrogance of this man, sitting there plotting and planning on how he was going to run the empire…  
“Who else Leia? Your Senate? A committee to debate and discuss? Do you really think they can run the galaxy better than I can?... Or do you plan to do it yourself? To be our Empress, to love us and mother us, to tell us to play nice?”  
“Why not? I could do it just as well as you! Why shouldn’t the galaxy have an Empress who loves it, who would take care of it? Why are you smirking like that?”  
“Oh the good little Leia, saviour of the galaxy, protecting it from the big bad Sith… just take a look at yourself, take a good long look…” He took a hold of her shoulder and turned her towards the long mirror that covered one wall of the room… She glared at his reflection before turning her attention to her own… only to recoil in horror.  
Her eyes… a fiery red glow that matched anything she had seen in Vader blazed there… Her hands came up to her face, covering it…

She dropped down onto a couch, curling up on herself, trying to force the anger down, away, out of her…

It was long minutes before she trusted herself to sit up straight again, to stand and check her reflection… they were back to hazel.  
Luke was pressing a drink into her hands, his voice rough but sympathetic.  
“It’s all right. You can learn to fight it. Knowing it’s there is the first step.”

“I’m a Sith. How can I be Sith?” Her voice sounded plaintive, even to her own ears.  
“You’re Force sensitive. And that was the Dark Side. That doesn’t make you Sith”  
“But that’s the way it is. There’s the Light Side, that the Jedi used, and the Dark side which the Sith use. So I…” She frowned. Surely being a Sith was something she would have noticed? She felt the same as she always had… didn’t she?  
“There was no-one left to teach me. Father only knows what he learned from Sidious, which is partial at best. The Jedi are long gone. I have spent half of my life trying to work out where I stand. And the best I have managed to come up with is that… well, that there is just the Force. No sides, just power. Anger and hatred bring out the red glow, make you feel disconnected from humanity, bring the sensation of that cold dark pit in anyone Force sensitive around you. And feelings of concern, of love, bring a sense of serenity, of connectedness, and the feeling of warmth. But one person can feel both. Father does now, you’ve seen that clearly enough. He gave in to the cold flames for so long he finds them a terrible temptation even now, like a drug. You can swear off it, but when things are difficult you can always remember how much simpler life was when you cared about nothing else. But then again, the warm fuzzy feeling…” He shrugged. “Well, unless I plan to go live on a rock and contemplate the meaning of existence for the next hundred years, that doesn’t solve anything either, does it? If I had decided to go that route, you’d still have Palpatine in charge and Father doing his dirty work. Would that be better? The galaxy is here, now, and it needs to be ruled. I may not be the best person for the job, but I don’t see anyone better placed to do it, and that’s the simple truth.”

He squared his shoulders and looked straight at Leia. “I made my decision that day, on the Death Star. Sidious could not be allowed to continue to live. Not for one day longer than I could possibly avoid. And being nice and sweet and innocent wasn’t going to stop him. I felt millions of lives snuffed out because of his evil nature. And I felt my Father, for all his power, stand by and let it happen. I knew he could never be the leader the galaxy needed”   
He stopped short at Leia’s undisguised shock at his words.  
“Oh I knew he would be Emperor after Palpatine. But he needed someone to guide him. It took months to persuade him to see things my way, but we got there in the end.”  
“What if… “ Leia’s voice cracked at first, and she started again. “What if I go to him, tell him what you’ve done, what you’ve planned, how you’ve manipulated him?”  
Luke regarded her seriously.  
“Do you think he would believe you?”  
Leia blinked. “He… it’s the truth. He would know that, if I told him…”  
“He would know that you believed it.”  
“But … if he knew that, then he would know…” She trailed off. Her sincere belief that Luke had murdered the Alliance delegation, had tricked Madine into destroying a ship full of refugees, was keeping his father in power for his own ends… would that stand up against Vader’s belief in Luke, their shared history together? Without proof… and Luke was sharp enough to have made sure no proof existed…  
Luke was nodding calmly now. “You see?” He asked, not unkindly. “What I’m prepared to say to you here and now is one thing, what I would say and do if you repeat these foolish suggestions elsewhere would be quite another”  
“I’d be dead within the hour I suppose, or else in a prison cell”  
“Oh no, that would never do. The tragic young senator, who has struggled bravely on through the loss of her family, her whole planet, whose fragile mental state we had none of us quite realised, who stood and watched in helpless tears as peace negotiations were stopped by the terrible deaths of so many… she would not be sent to prison when her grip on reality unfolded. So sad, so very sad, you would have the best possible psychiatric care, Senator Organa. The very best, most exclusive facility, paid for out of the Emperor’s own funds. You have made such a strong impression on my father, he would not begrudge you anything to help you get well again. You would stay there as long as it took, with the highest possible standards of care, until you were well enough to return to normal life again. Not a political career of course, it would be unwise to put you under such strain again, I’m sure the doctors would advise against it in the strongest possible terms.”  
Leia felt a chill run through her, recognising the truth of what Luke said… the public would believe what they were told, the tragic story of yet another victim of violence, this time the mind rather than the body showing the damage done by the death and destruction caused by war. People would be saddened but not surprised… Even Vader would accept Luke’s version, perhaps blaming himself for involving her in politics again, but never doubting his son’s word. And she would be isolated from everything she believed in, everything of importance…

“I’ll oppose you every way that I can. Every debate in the Senate, every vote, every bill…”  
Luke smiled back at her. “Of course you will, Leia. That’s why I brought you into this, why I gave you your position. Democracy demands that your voice be heard, that there is always someone seen to be outside the system, arguing for more democracy, for more accountability, for the military to be kept small, for the moffs to be limited in their powers. Your voice as the counterpoint to Vader’s. It will be beautiful. Between the two of you, my Empire will be in safe hands. Peace and democracy, just as you always wanted… I’m so glad you’ve decided to be reasonable about this. I really didn’t want to have to call for medical help for you.”  
She shuddered inwardly at his calmness, the neatness with which he had played her from the start.  
“Cheer up, Senator. I’ve been planning a treat for you for a very long time. The announcement will be made this evening, in recognition of this little chat of ours. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion”.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a smallish point on the news that evening, and Leia doubted that anyone else would have even recognised the significance. She wept silently as she saw it for what it was – the final step in Luke’s manipulation of her. Everything she had wanted, just twisted out of alignment by the slightest amount.

“Modifications planned to membership of the Senate. Plans to amend representation criteria will result in an increase to a new high of 3,192 representatives. Full details to be announced tomorrow."


End file.
